{"id":52,"date":"2016-01-21T20:21:49","date_gmt":"2016-01-21T20:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/?p=52"},"modified":"2020-12-23T13:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T13:10:58","slug":"new-website-what-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/new-website-what-next\/","title":{"rendered":"New website &#8211; what next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_184\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-184\" style=\"width: 950px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-184\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/new-site-blog-header.jpg\" alt=\"New website checklist\" width=\"950\" height=\"632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/new-site-blog-header.jpg 950w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/new-site-blog-header-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/new-site-blog-header-768x511.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Website just gone live, surely now it&#8217;s time for a break?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You have just completed (or your designer has) your brand new website. \u00a0The site is live and after many weeks of frantic effort you can finally take a break, sit back and admire the newly launched site, right?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wrong!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the hard work continues; in fact, some may say, it has only just begun once the site has gone live! \u00a0Any parent will tell you that the birth of a child is just the start of years of effort and commitment during which they see their loved one grow and develop.\u00a0 A new website is spookily similar (though maybe with fewer sleepless nights and fewer tantrums)!<\/p>\n<p>In essence, once your website has gone live you need to\u2026.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Drive traffic to the site to attract new visitors<\/li>\n<li>Keep the content fresh to retain existing users and \u2018convert\u2019 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>new<\/em><\/span> users<\/li>\n<li>Measure site effectiveness and your marketing progress<\/li>\n<li>Improve the site\u2019s user experience<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>5 Vital Tasks for any New Website<\/h2>\n<p>Here is the QD Design checklist for how\u00a0you can do this once your site has gone live.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Use Social Media to promote the site and bring in traffic.<\/strong><br \/>\nSimply launching a site will not automatically bring people to it. You need to promote the site to your users, customers and potential customers through a focused and targeted strategy. \u00a0Ask yourself, where do my potential customers typically \u2018hang out\u2019 on social media. \u00a0Are you there too?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Make it easy for people to share your content.<\/strong><br \/>\nYou have created some amazing content, with insightful text and great images. <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-59\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/social-sharing-300x46.png\" alt=\"social-sharing\" width=\"300\" height=\"46\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/social-sharing-300x46.png 300w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/social-sharing-768x118.png 768w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/social-sharing.png 953w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Placing Social Media sharing buttons on pages will make it easier for people to share the site and in turn bring others to view it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Traffic logging.<\/strong><br \/>\nYou should have set up (or the designer should have on your behalf) some form of traffic logging for the site. Of the many traffic monitors available, the biggest and probably best is <a href=\"https:\/\/analytics.google.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Analytics<\/a>.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-56 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/logo-ga-300x71.png\" alt=\"google analytics logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"71\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/logo-ga-300x71.png 300w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/logo-ga-768x181.png 768w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/logo-ga-1024x241.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Now is the time to begin querying the data it provides. \u00a0This can help you see where visitors to your site\u00a0are coming from, how long they stay for, and at what time of the day the site\u00a0is most popular.\u00a0 If you are selling goods and services through the site you can even begin to track how far a visitor gets through the buying process before they abandon \u2013 very useful for refining your pricing, your product descriptions or your product promotion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Develop more content.<\/strong><br \/>\n\u2018What\u2019, I hear you say, \u2018it has taken weeks to develop the new site and you want me to create\u00a0even more new content\u2019? \u00a0Yes, I\u2019m afraid so!\u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-54 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/content_development-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"website development in progress on a laptop\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/content_development-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/content_development.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Google search hugely prefers sites that are up to date and have new content over ones that are static and remain the same month in month out.\u00a0 Developing new content pleases both the Google search engine as well as your audience. New content is a great reason to contact your audience\u00a0and promote the site <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">even<\/span> further.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Optimise the user experience.<\/strong><br \/>\nUse tools such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/webmasters\/tools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Google Webmaster<\/a> and their <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/speed\/pagespeed\/insights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Page Speed Insights<\/a> to check how quickly the site loads and what you can do to make it even faster. You should already have checked how it works on different sized devices but go through each and every page, top to bottom, ensuring the design does truly work.\u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-53 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/code-820275_640-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"html code displayed on a laptop screen\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/code-820275_640-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/code-820275_640.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Optimize image sizes and the white space around them to ensure that great content isn\u2019t missing from the viewer&#8217;s eye. \u00a0Create a list of improvements to work upon come the date of the first site review.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If your chosen designer doesn\u2019t have a process for continually improving your website, are they truly the right person for the job? \u00a0There is more to web design than just devising the site itself.\u00a0 At QD Design we know that the design and deployment is the (relatively) easy part, maintaining and improving the site to achieve your business aims over the long term is where the hard graft is really needed.<\/p>\n<p>QD Design\u00a0can assist you every step of the journey; get in touch to find out what we can do for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You have just completed (or your designer has) your brand new website. \u00a0The site is live and after many weeks of frantic effort you can finally take a break, sit back and admire the newly launched site, right? Wrong! Unfortunately, the hard work continues; in fact, some may say, it has only just begun once &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/new-website-what-next\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New website &#8211; what next?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,14,15,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","category-site-launch","category-site-optimisation","category-web-design"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qd-design.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}